A Tale of Many Cities

Mckinney Texas joins L.A.,Long Beach,Tulsa,Miami etc,etc in its tale of racially motivated abuse of police power.Perhaps in no incident is it clearer that “fearing for one’s life” had no relevance.What was relevant was fatigue and irritability being channeled into the policeman’s preexisting bias.Defense of the status quo again appeared prominent inasmuch as the dispute was about the use and claimed abuse of a community swimming pool.If it is true that the police were summoned by a black owner and host,the social class issue may be more clearly intermixed with the issue of race than usual.

Cincinatti and Madison now display police leadership that admits bias and are moving toward a newer version of community policing.Most police forces appear to be resisting and reemphasizing their primary obligation as catching”the bad guys”Let’s hope that this is an historical inflexion point that will not and cannot be disregarded.

4 Comments

Is something seen that is not there? In the video from McKinney I saw a number of policemen who were trying to establish order among a chaotic group of teenagers many of whom were refusing to cooperate. Some of these teenagers were downright rebellious, in fact even threatening in response to the efforts of the police. The problem would have been identical had they all been any other race or mix of races. That is, the necessary effort to isolate those who had earlier violated law, or had witnessed such violation, required some in this crowd to stay put and not run away. What is a policeman supposed to do when a possible suspect or suspects refuse to cooperate? Even if a lawman was overly zealous in pursuit of duty there was nothing presented here that supports certitude that the conflict itself or excessive behavior on the part of a policeman was motivated by racial bias.
Equal justice requires us to be just to all, including those identified often by the color blue who are assigned the task of enforcing OUR laws.